A fairly straightforward question. I remember reading long ago that some of the Conquistadors of the New World had Jewish ancestry. Does anyone know which specific ones are supposed to have been descended from Jewish families?
Columbus himself? There is a persistent theory that he was a converted Jew.
By “Conquistador,” are we talking about Commanders only, or about “the people who took place in the Conquista”? Soldiers only, or civilians?
The big names, no idea, but moving to The New World was one of the ways in which Jews who didn’t want to abandon their religion could manage to avoid expulsion; among the trades that were specifically “imported” from the Peninsula by the most enlightened Viceroys there were some which had been very frequently Jews (for example jewelers and embroiderers). Soldiering wasn’t a traditional occupation for Spanish Jews, but then, it hadn’t been a traditional ocupation for anybody; professional soldiers had been rare and far-between. Many if not most of the soldiers who took place in the Conquista went there meaning to conquer themselves a farm, not make a living soldiering (the ones who meant to make a living as soldiers went to Flanders or Italy).
I was specifically referring to the leaders of military expeditions or those who served under them. I’m aware of the Columbus-Jew theory but I don’t think it has a lot of merit. (I should mention I’m really referring to “conversos” and not actual practicing Jews.) Jewish descent.
One of them was Diego de Ordaz, one of Cortez’s captains, and the first man recorded to climb Popocatepetl, as well, as the man who discovered the Orinoco.
Another would be Luis de Carabajal y Cueva, slave trader, general, governor of Nueva Leon, and founder of Monterrey. He was actually the person responsible for getting the law changed so that conversos could settle the New World. He was actually probably a crypto-Jew. The Inqusition ended up getting him, and he died in prison, and most of his family was burned at the stake.